FWO: Wage theft reoffending widespread

Late last month, the University of Technology Sydney released a study claiming Australia had a “large, silent underclass of underpaid migrant workers” with backpackers and international students owed more than $1 billion in unpaid wages.

Now, a national audit by the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) has revealed that 38% of employers caught underpaying employees were still doing it when re-audited by the FWO. From The Australian:

The ombudsman re-audited 479 business that had previously broken workplace laws, with 38 per cent still not meeting their legal obligations to employees… only two of the 184 businesses still breaching the Fair Work Act were prosecuted…

Of the businesses that remained non-compliant, the agency recovered $244,246 from 98 employers for 347 workers…

ACTU secretary Sally McManus said there were about 200 agency inspectors charged with enforcing workplace laws for more than 12 million workers.

What do you get when you add ever more cheap foreign labour to an oversupplied labour market? A complete breakdown in industrial relations as firms give up on training and full time employment and instead import cheap, easy come, easy go foreign alternatives. You’d be mad as business to do anything else if offered it.

One friends daughter working in cafe in Sandringham,vic.
Cash in hand wages, not award and didn’t pay her for four months- paid after a bit of parental persuasion. Apparently a very common story.
So you may well be competing against people who are not paying staff at all if they can get away with it.

Interesting – Niece works as a waitress in a cafe in Sandringham (opposite station) and she’s owed $1,800! It’s outrageous. Cash in hand, no records – just a hand written book with hours worked. Apparently owner has 3 cafes. Barista’s are however paid on time.